Malicious grievance against me

[DandelionPockets]

Hi all - looking for advice or solidarity because I'm really being put through it atm.

I manage a team of 5 in the transport industry, I've done this job for 6 years with a break in the middle for mat-leave. When I returned from mat-leave they had hired a new person. She has been a consistently poor performer (never answering emails or messages, never updating the internal database, ignoring supplier calls, asking other people to do her work. Some days it seems like she does about 30minutes of work all day. Constant escalations to me from colleagues because her not doing work has led to them not being able to do their jobs).

The person has protected characteristics and along with HR we documented reasonable adjustments we would make and I support these. I also document our 1:1s on email and give consistent feedback on expectations and performance. I ask her about each of those things she hasn't done in the 1:1s and ask her to do them by the next week's 1:1 and sometimes they are not done even after that.

So after 3 months of this I spoke with HR and my line manager to say we need to do a capability review, everyone agrees. We do the capability review and the outcome is a PIP with clear objectives. No formal warning as advised by our lawyers. She has 6 weeks to show she has improved before the next review. She brings a union rep who is extremely argumentative during the meeting, but myself and the HR manager do well.

After the capability hearing there is a flurry of emails from the employee to the Head of HR. One is a grievance against the HR manager, one is a grievance against me, a whole new list of adjustments they require (some are very very unreasonable). Quite stressful for me but I'm assured by HR and my line manager i've followed process perfectly and been a supportive line manager. All I know is that the grievance states that I have not been supportive of their protected characteristics and harassing them as I have not cancelled our scheduled 1:1 for next week and have been unfair in not giving more of a chance to improve outside of a formal process.

My manager and Head of HR are meeting with the employee next week to talk about the grievance against me as per the policy which I know means they need to treat it seriously even though it does make me feel uneasy as I've never ever had a direct report complain about me before.

So my questions are:

1. I should ask for details of the grievance and the minutes from the meeting where she outlines her complaint and evidence?
2. The grievance is likely to not be upheld as I haven't done anything wrong and it's a direct ploy to stop the formal PIP. Should I send a counter grievance following the outcome to say it was malicious?
3. Should I make sure to have a formal meeting with HR and my line manager to give my evidence/side of things. Should I start gathering evidence and witness statements myself?

I just want to make sure that I'm not being ridiculous but also standing up for myself with all this.

Thank you

Please tell me you are in a union. And get the rep involved

I'm not...

Have been through very similar recently. Hell on earth. Happy to pm

Union rep here.

1. No. They'll come to you for your side of the grievance facts. And yes, they do have to take it seriously.
2. No. You'll just look petty (and they're already on a PIP).
3. Yes to getting your facts straight but your work will tell you when the meeting is. They'll ask you questions then.
4. Join a union in case of any future issues. You've seen how hard they fight for their members.

@Puskiesauce thank you. I think because I've always prided myself on looking after my team it hurts that she can make things up about me and so she should face disciplinary action for that, but as you say she is already on a PIP.

The union rep is certainly fighting hard, but obviously told her to attack me with no basis for it which seems a bit underhand tbh.

But this is why there's an investigation.

It's not aimed at you personally, they are defending their member.

From what you’ve says, sounds v unlikely it will be upheld. I’ve sat on several grievance boards and the malicious ones are pretty easy to spot.
Sorry you’re going through this though. I hope your manager is supporting you through this.

@bluejelly thanks. My manager is being supportive, he's not happy with how it's going and now he's having to do meetings too!

I am 99.9% certain it won't be upheld. The stress is about how long this whole thing will take and how frustrating it is that someone's lies have to be taken seriously.

Gosh you're right, made it clear as mud. They have ADHD.

i can see it’s frustrating and upsetting to go through this, but as others have said they have to take it seriously and go through the process so the best thing to do is remain calm and professional as you have been, and let it take its course.

What would be useful in the mean time is to document for your own purposes how you HAVE been supportive of her protected characteristic, as that is part of her grievance, as that will help you prepare any evidence you need for a rebuttal e.g. how have you implemented her reasonable adjustments, and done anything else to support her? Also think about what she said when you asked her each week why she hadn’t done a particular thing, what were her excuses?

Was it documented that she was told about the poor performance each time? If you get this evidence in place it will help to show her grievance is unwarranted. Bear in mind though, it may not show its ‘unfair’ (or lead to further disciplinary due to ‘lies’) because she may well actually FEEL unsupported and say that’s why she’s not been performing well, so anything you can say regarding how you’ve supported /helped her in her performance will be to your advantage.

@BuckyBuckyBucky thank you for your advice.

Performance concerns were documented e.g. I would say something needed improvement or should be focused on by the next 1:1. All in writing so that is available for everyone to check through. Every 1:1 shows I've asked about support needed or training requirements and always got told she had nothing she needed in addition to what we agreed with HR as part of the reasonable adjustments.

I think we can show that if she did feel unsupported then she was given opportunities to ask for additional help.

That’s really good, particularly documenting that you’ve asked what extra support she needed or additional training requirements, it sounds like you’re a really good manager.

Out of interest, did she say why she wasn’t managing to get these things done on time?

@BuckyBuckyBucky thanks, I've done a lot of personal development to make sure I'm not a crap manager because I've had a few in the past.

Vague answers, like 'i thought I'd done that, let me check' or 'i know I need to do that, I'll have a look today' but then not really following up on it so it gets raised again or someone else ends up doing it. I can't remember a single instance where it related to her disability but I could be wrong I'd need to check the notes again.

Gather the evidence now as you will probably be interviewed by an investigation manager for the grievance. Loop in HR to all communications so they explicitly sign off on your comms before you send anything to her. Get a union rep if you’re part of one if not ask someone to accompany you if that would help. I have literally today come to the end of a 5 month process to end someone’s employment in similar situation (no protected characteristics) and honestly it’s been awful but just follow the guidance and advice of HR and see what evidence is presented - I hope it goes quicker for you !

@DandelionPockets sorry you’re experiencing this. Earlier this year I had to dismiss a direct report for failing their probation due to poor performance/capability. The employee was female, black and declared ADHD during her very first Teams interview with me.

There had been issues from day one and even after extending her 6-month probation period by an additional 3 months and implementing 31 separate reasonable adjustments to support her and help encourage a sustained improvement in performance, ultimately we had to dismiss.

Throughout the entire 6 month period where more formal performance management was involved she bad mouthed me to department peers and seniors, even escalating her displeasure about the performance review directly to the CEO, making out she had been completely blindsided by the situation and had been given no chance to improve.

Despite being repeatedly signposted to the grievance procedure by HR, other managers and me she never made it official, preferring to stick with the slander - an official grievance would have meant her having to substantiate her claims which she couldn’t as they were totally false!

On the day she was officially terminated, she replied to a junior HR rep who was simply emailing over her termination letter and alleged I was a bully who had targeted her simply due to either her race, her neurodiversity or both.

Whilst I knew it was utter rubbish and was reassured by all internally who had been involved in the matter that they gave it absolutely no credence, it still really hurt - weirdly more so seeing it written it black and white?! Like you, I pride myself on the strong relationships I build with my team, so such a malicious and unfounded accusation really shook me.

All I can say is try not to worry - the grievance will need to be investigated but this will be to your advantage as it will prove your conduct is beyond reproach and totally in line with legal requirements and business policy/process. I would also advise not to raise a counter grievance- let the PIP process play out, as from what you’ve described, there’s likely to be only one outcome anyway.

@CoastalCalm thanks for the advice - I'll start to gather things on Monday so I'm prepared for the next steps.

You must feel so much lighter to be out the other side!

That’s great doing a lot of personal development, a lot of people think managing is easy and that’s when you get crap managers that don’t really care about their staff, but it sounds like you do and your manager and HR both see that, so you will no doubt be fine, even though I know it’s worrying.

The excuses could be related to her disability, in that ADHD makes it hard to be organised and also affects memory. Some people with ADHD find it helpful to use lists to tick off either on paper, or using something like Microsoft Tasks and also flagging emails with colours and flags to keep organised so they know when they’ve done them.

Apologies if you know all this and that’s part of her reasonable adjustments you’ve already put in place and I’m teaching grandmother to suck eggs lol!

@gillefc82 so sorry you had to go through that, it sounds incredibly challenging.

I'm so glad to get the advice of you and others. It shows me I need to stay calm and let the process play out, and most importantly resist the urge to respond impulsively to the hurt I'm feeling!

@BuckyBuckyBucky yes fair points and no there was no specific reasonable adjustment around that.

@CantHoldMeDown could I ask you as HR Director have you had experience of someone who has ADHD but also incredibly poor performance and how would you normally manage that?

Congratulations on your degree!

Don't send a counter grievance. That's not a good look from a manager.

Yes, you can ask for details of her grievance. Once you have this information, you'll be in a better position to collate your evidence and show that you have been suppi.

You don't need to request a formal meeting at this stage. HR will advise of the process and you'll be given the opportunity to respond.

I had over 30 years in nHR and saw
employees do this nonsense a lot, when their poor performance is raised. Either this, or they go off sick.

@SandyY2K thank you for your advice.

HR haven't told me what to expect next (after the hear her complaint in a formal meeting) so it's reassuring to hear it from others like you!